Assessing Dental Students' Awareness of Anaphylactic Shock Caused by Local Anesthetic Injection (Preprint)

BACKGROUND Background: Anaphylaxis, a severe allergic reaction with rapid onset and multi-organ involvement, can be fatal. It may occur after local anesthetic injection and is a major risk factor for dental emergencies. Healthcare professionals must be aware of prompt diagnosis and management. Antibiotics, chlorhexidine, iodoform, and latex can also cause anaphylaxis less frequently. Anaphylactic shock is a critical clinical manifestation in daily dental practice, and some dental students lack the knowledge to accurately treat patients in emergency situations. OBJECTIVE Aim: This study investigates the awareness of dental students from Isfahan University of Medical Sciences regarding anaphylactic shock caused by local anesthetic injection during their last two years of study. METHODS Methods: This descriptive-analytical and cross-sectional study was conducted after registration in the council of Isfahan University of Medical Sciences and obtaining the code of ethics on all students of the last two years of dentistry of Isfahan University in 2023. The inclusion criteria of the study were the students of the last two years of general dental doctorate. Those who did not want to cooperate and incompletely filled the questionnaire were excluded from the study. In order to check the questionnaires, the answers were calculated as signs and symptoms, anaphylaxis and epinephrine administration. Answers were distributed individually. The experience status was also in the form of 3 questions, and the frequency of each answer was reported. The marks of each field were assigned as correct answer (score=1) and wrong answer (score=0). Then demographic information including gender, age, experience and knowledge score regarding epinephrine and anaphylaxis was analyzed using SPSS version 26 software. RESULTS Results: There is no difference between the level of knowledge of students in terms of gender, age and year of entry. Regarding the level of awareness of students regarding the administration of epinephrine in anaphylaxis, the research participants were only aware of the fact that epinephrine is kept in their department. And there was no difference between gender, age and entry year of students in terms of knowledge of epinephrine administration at the time of anaphylaxis reaction. However, students at the ages of 23 and 27 had a higher level of awareness than other age groups. CONCLUSIONS Conclusion: Most of the students had a high level of awareness of the signs and symptoms of anaphylactic reaction caused by the injection of local anesthetics, and none of the demographic variables (gender, age, and year of admission) had an effect on the level of awareness of the students in the field of signs and symptoms.